shane claiborne @ wts

Yesterday was a wonderful day! I had the privilege to listen and engage in broad conversation with Shane Claiborne around three talking points - Resurrecting Church, Another Way of Life, and the Scandal of Grace. Shane is an author of several books including: Irrresitible Revolutionand Jesus for President; he is involved in a "movement" called The Simply Way whose motto is Dream big. Live small. Shane has also spent time with Mother Teresa working with orphans and the disenfranchised of Calcutta.

Observations about Shane
Right from his opening joke, what struck me the most about Shane was his joy. At the end of the day, I found myself praying in the car on my way home that God would grant me a portion of Shane's joy. While he had every opportunity to point out all the church's faults and criticize her for all her wrong-doings throughout history - he didn't. Rather he joyfully and tearfully shared stories of where God showed up in people's lives. I respect that. I want that. I want that kind of joy for others.

I found Shane's warmth, candidness, and approach very inviting and I think his demeanor allowed the audience to ask him some difficult [but very good] questions with mutual respect and candidness.

Observations Regarding Making Disciples
Here are some of Shane's observations about making disciples in our contexts today:
1. Move in to the abandoned places - move toward suffering and enter into it, not away from it.
2. Shared economics - practice giving a relational tithe to those whom we know personally. This can be as simple as forming a babysitting co-op to save on babysitting fees or as complex as forming a health care co-op to help pay medical bills for under- or uninsured friends.
3. Practice hospitality and open our homes to those who are hungry or in need.
4. Seek racial reconciliation.
5. Have conversations around sexuality - celebrate singleness and leave room for the celebate. Quoting Shane quoting a monk said, "We can live without sex, but we can't live without love." Well said.
6. Become stewards of God's creation by caring for the earth and exploring alternative options and create teaching opportunities in our neighborhoods to teach stewardship.
7. Seek peace always.
8. Live in rhythm of prayer and Sabbath-rest.

Another Way of Doing Life
In this session, Shane talked at length about a Theology of Enough. He began his talk with a quote from Ghandi who said that there are enough resources in this world to meed everyone's need, but not enough resources to meet everyone's greed. Point well taken. A theology of enough, for Claiborne, is centered in rebirth. Spiritual rebirth, as symbolized and demonstrated in the first part of the Book of Acts, shows that the early Christian church shared all things in common and no one was in need of anything. Rebirth leads to redistribution of goods, services, and wealth. Shane recognizes that this sounds a lot like Communism. To his critics he says, "Loving neighbors [as taught in the Christian Scriptures] makes capitalism obsolete and Marxism unnecessary."

A theology of enough means that we hold on to our possession lightly. Practice the principle of non-attachment which says: I will purchase or receive nothing that I cannot give away. A theology of enough says that the best thing we can do is to give away our best things.

Quotable Quotes
Here are some quotes from Shane's talks that I don't have any other place for:

"Being a Christian is not about better vision, but about having new eyes to see."

"God loves us back to life - we have a God who is greater than our worst sin."

"The closer to God we are, the less we want to throw stones."

"It is grace that dulls the executioner's sword."

"If we lose a generation, it's not because we didn't entertain them, it's because we didn't dare them to follow Jesus."

blogging break

I've been pretty slammed over the last month with church work, school, and other obligations. I'll be up and running in a week or two. Check back soon.

where is God when it hurts - part four

A Critique of Culture
Yancey rightly questions our culture's false perceptions regarding pain, "Not only is pain useful as a warning - it may also be an essential element in our richest experiences....We are told that pain is the antithesis of pleasure....Our distorted viewpoint helps foster the myth that pain and pleasure are diametrically opposed: our life styles murmur it to us every day" (41-2).

This is a tough pill to swallow, yet we must contend with the apparent opposing worldviews. Though not always obvious, our culture and the societies in which we live - both rightly and wrongly - tell us that pain is "bad" - "Have a sore back? Take some Aleve." Americans, including myself, tend to conceptualize pain as something that must be mastered with technology (42). Our culture tends to remove us from the natural cycle of pain and death in the animal world - we experience these things vicariously through alternative media outlets like television, movies, magazines, the internet, and books. This kind of vicarious living produces numbness. We can become numb to the natural rhythms of creation. Yancey says, "It is too easy for us to perceive the sensations of life as something which must be done to us. We don't see pleasure as something we reach out for and actively attain after struggle. If it involves pain, we abandon the search" (43).

"On a higher level," Yancey continues, "most worthwhile human accomplishments involve a long history of struggle...The pleasure after the pain absorbs it...Jesus used childbirth as an analogy: nine months of waiting, intense labor, then absolute ecstasy (John 16:21)" (47).

Yancey closes this section with this thought, "Pain cannot be extracted from life's experiences and roundly condemned. A knee-jerk reaction against God for allowing pain is futile [see Job]...and often it is a necessary step to pleasure and fulfillment" (49).

I like that - "Pain is a necessary step to pleasure and fulfillment." Anything worth doing or anything worth being or attaining will ultimately cost you something of tremendous value. It requires investment and sacrifice [among other things]. Childbirth is just one example. Another example are athletes who are dedicated to their sports and put the time, energy, and training in order to compete at a high level.

I don't think that we need to necessarily "embrace" or "encourage" pain - but we do need to recognize that without pain we don't really know what pleasure is. Pain - though uncomfortable for us to experience - is necessary to living a fulfilled life.

More to come...

where is God when it hurts - part three

Pain - the "gift" that some don't have

In 2 Kings 5, we encounter a charasmatic hero from Aram named Naaman. Naaman was a commander in the army of the king of Aram. Yet despite his military prowess - Naaman was a leper. The word "leprosy" probably conjures up all kinds of mental pictures ranging from snow-white skin peeling to limbs falling off. Nevertheless, movies largely have shaped the way we view leprosy, or Hansen's disease, mostly in unhelpful or unrealistic ways.

Hansen's Disease

Largely what we see of those who suffer from this cruel disease is the effect of something much deeper and more sinister. Hansen's disease (HD) is an anestheic which numbs the pain cells of the hands, feet, nose, ears, and eyes. While most diseases are feared because of their pain, this disease is disastrous because of the lack of pain associated with it. Current research has shown that in 99% of cases, HD only numbs the extremities. So how does decay happen? Well, if the nerve cells are destroyed in HD patients, then actions such as removing a hot pan from the oven with a bare hand would not cause pain - but a burn or hand blister would still be evidenced. Yancey tells a story of a time when a HD doctor tried to open a rusty storeroom lock, but it would not give. A patient, who he describes as undersized, malnourshed 10-year old, approached and offered to unlock the padlock. the boy took the key and with a quick jerk he turned the key in the lock. The doctor was amazed. But upon closer inspection, the doctor discovered that the difficult act of turning the key gashed one of the boy's fingers open - exposing his bone below. Despite the depth of the wound, the boy experienced no pain.

"These people can undergo surgery without anesthesia, and they can impress their friends with painless feats...but their lives are marked with danger" (38). Those who suffer from HD "should make all of us discard the common notion that pain is an unpleasantness to be avoided at all costs...More than anything, it [pain] frees us to enjoy normalcy on this planet" (39). Without pain, Yancey continues, "we would lead unbalanced, paranoid lives, encountering unknown dangers, never confident that we weren't destroying ourselves" (39).

A Thought

Though the Bible describes Naaman as a leper - that was a fairly common word used to describe anyone who had any kind of skin disease. Maybe Naaman had what we call Hansen's Disease today or perhaps he had a really bad rash - we don't know. Had Naaman been an Israelite, he would have been relegated to the outskirts [or margins] of society where contact with "the diseased" was forbidden. What a way to go through life - to never be allowed to experience relationship with other human beigns except perhaps with others who have a skin disease as well. We were all created to experience relationship in this life and to experience it to the fullest. Can you imagine life without being able to feel the grass between your toes or feel the soft touch of a loved one's hand?

More to come....

quotable quote

The cycle of codependency must stop, and it begins with the leader refusing to enable the irresponsible behavior of others. Christian leaders must step off the pedestal and no longer allow the average Christian to do nothing. As long as the leaders continue to fulfill all roles of responsibility, the others will not be able to do what God has called them to do" (40).

Neil Cole, Organic Leadership